Jennifer White-Johnson

Jennifer White-Johnson is an American artist and activist living in Baltimore, Maryland. As a disabled Afro-Latina artist with ADHD and Graves' Disease she uses graphic design and photography as a means to discuss the intersection of disability rights and anti-racism, and to give visibility to misrepresented voices.

Early life and education White-Johnson was born to a Puerto-Rican mother and a Chicagoan father and was raised in Maryland and Washington, D.C.

She earned her BA in Visual Arts from University of Maryland, Baltimore County and also completed an MFA in Graphic Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Career White-Johnson has taught as a Guest Lecturer at the University of Minnesota School of Design's Design Justice Initiative.

She has previously taught as assistant professor of Visual Communications at Bowie State University, where she was the student faculty advisor for the Bowie State chapter of American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). She has also worked for brands including Nike, Converse, Twitter, Amazon, Today at Apple, and Google Stories, discussing and creating events around the intersection of art and disability activism. In 2020, White-Johnson was an honoree on the D-30 Disability Impact List for her protest art and anti-racist designs, She made the symbol accessible to others by making it free to download from her website, and it was protestors in the United States, United Kingdom and by former president Barack Obama. Her goal though creating this symbol was to encourage further discussion about disability and intersectionality in activism, and on Black Education Matter's Black Disabled Lives Matter resource page.

Knox Roxs White-Johnson released a limited-edition photography based zine in 2018 called Knox Roxs. The book features her autistic son, Knox, and 72 pages of photos. The book seeks to increase visibility for neurodiverse children of color, and showcase Black autistic joy. The zine has also been featured in AfroPunk and the 2019 Women's March on Washington, and it is currently in the permanent collections of the libraries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

The Art of Disability Culture: Artists with Disabilities Dispelling Myths, Dissolving Barriers, and Disrupting Prejudice White-Johnson's work was selected for The Art of Disability Culture: Artists with Disabilities Dispelling Myths, Dissolving Barriers, and Disrupting Prejudice exhibition at the Palo Alto Arts Center from September 11, 2021, to December 11, 2021. The show called for a sense of community by incorporating disability culture though artwork. It was composed entirely of artists with disabilities, and highlighted their creative expression of their experiences.

Autism Acceptance Month advocacy campaign and photo narrative In April 2017, White-Johnson released a series of photos along with a mission statement in honor of Autism Awareness month, featuring her son. The message she wanted to convey was to "Advocate autistic voices, Advocate acceptance, Advocate autistic love, Advocate for your autistic self, Advocate autistic opinions, Advocate inclusion".

Publications

White-Johnson, Jennifer. "Amplifying Accessibility and Abolishing Ableism: Designing to Embolden Black Disability Visual Culture", in An Anthology of Blackness: The State of Black Design. Edited by Terresa Moses and Omari Souza, 221-228. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2024. . White-Johnson, Jennifer. "DisCrit Mothering as a Radical Act." International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education April 2024, 1-14.